[misc.handicap] braille reading

Margo.Downey@f60.n382.z1.fidonet.org (Margo Downey) (05/14/91)

Index Number: 15575

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

David, I read the same way as you mentioned--except that I read a line with
both hands--but mostly with the left hand--and let the right hand finish the
line while the left hand starts reading the next line.  My reading speed is
influenced by what I'm reading and how much attention I need to pay to the
material.

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William.Wilson@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (William Wilson) (05/15/91)

Index Number: 15658

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

 MD> different, you read one with vision and you read the other with
 MD> your fingers.  That's the difference I see.  And, a sighted
 MD> person who reads print may be able to temporarily store
 MD> information for a couple of seconds that was input
 MD> visually--but who's to say Braille readers can't do that,

Margo,
     Not I!  In fact, I said in my message that I suspected a sensory
storage of tactile information existed just as there is iconic memory!
That is why I said we are comparing apples and oranges!
     Since with sight the total visual field is stored for the duration
of the iconic memory, it can contain as much as the eye is capable of
sensing in that amount of time.  This, like it or not, is considerably
more than even the quickest hands could cover in a similar amount of
time, so there is more available for higher level processing such as
recognition, contextual information gathering, and so on with sight!  It
is just in the nature of the beast.

 MD> what's the big deal anyway?  Isn't the purpose of reading to
 MD> comprehend and to remember at least the essence of the text for
 MD> a while--longer than a few seconds in many cases?

No, I don't think it is in many cases, I think it is in all cases!  I
guess that is why I ended my message saying almost exactly that and
stating how I did much better in school after losing my sight than I had
done as a visual reader!
     Likewise, I said in my message how difficult it would be to conduct
a valid experiment comparing braille and print reading, so except for
me believing  that a greater amount of information put
into sensory storage could result in a larger amount available for short
term memory, and thus even long term memory if desired, we agree on
everything.
    That's a high enough percentage for me Margo, so I'm done with this
one!
                                                        Willie

... BlinkTalk, Dr. Deb and Silver in Pittsburgh!

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John.Sanfilippo@f460.n101.z1.fidonet.org (John Sanfilippo) (05/16/91)

Index Number: 15678

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

Hi Margo,
In my work at the Lighthouse Music School in New York, I can
vouch for the fact that there are some "older adults" who take
to braille as a duck to water!  We had one person for whom we
could not find enough music quick enough to satisfy their needs!
Imagin that with the supposedly dastardly music braille code!  I
would venture to say that such folks are relatively rare, but,
hay, they're out there.  It's fascinating to see.

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mgflax@phoenix.princeton.edu (Marshall G. Flax) (05/24/91)

Index Number: 15760

In article <15658@handicap.news> William.Wilson@f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org writes:
>Index Number: 15658
>
>     Since with sight the total visual field is stored for the duration
>of the iconic memory, it can contain as much as the eye is capable of
>sensing in that amount of time.  
>

Actually, that's not quite true.  Certainly a good deal of the visual
field is processed simultaneously, and it is clear that a good deal of
the results of that processing are stored.  But since the low-level
processing is itself influenced by such high-level details as attention,
it is not possible that the *entire* visual field is stored _in toto_.
Vision is a very complex sense, not usually amenable to blanket
generalizations.

marshall
/****************************************************************************/
/* Marshall Gene Flax '89       (609)258-6739  mgflax@phoenix.Princeton.EDU */
/* c/o Jack Gelfand|Psychology Dept|Princeton University|Princeton NJ 08544 */
/****************************************************************************/

William.Wilson@p0.f89.n129.z1.fidonet.org (William Wilson) (06/18/91)

Index Number: 16121

[This is from the Blink Talk Conference]

To: mgflax@phoenix.princeton.edu (Marshall G. Flax)

 >>     Since with sight the total visual field is stored
 > for the duration
 > >of the iconic memory, it can contain as much as the eye
 > is capable of
 > >sensing in that amount of time.

 > Actually, that's not quite true.  Certainly a good deal
 > of the visual
 > field is processed simultaneously, and it is clear that
 > a good deal of
 > the results of that processing are stored.  But since the
 > low-level
 > processing is itself influenced by such high-level details
 > as attention,
 > it is not possible that the *entire* visual field is stored
Marshall,

    Although your point is of course meaningless in a discussion of
comparison of braille and print reading, as attention, if a factor
in the one will likewise be a factor in the other, I'm afraid you
will have to substantiate your declaration  with some facts for me!

    Attention, as I was taught, is a factor in processing of information
into short term and long term memory, but definately not considered
a factor in sensory storage of information such as iconic memory!

 Obviously, if you are using attention to describe where the subject
has their eyes pointed, it would be a factor in determining what
comprises the visual field at a particular minute, but Sperling et.
al. in their experiment, most definately did not consider it a factor!

 In fact, tthey quite clearly referred to their findings as denoting
a "sensory storage", meaning pricisely that, storage at the sensory
level, not at the perceptual level where attention is a factor!  In
other words, whether the subject recognizes anything at all from the
iconic memory is irrelevant, they hypothesized exactly as I said,
a very brief storage of all sensory information, long before attention
plays any affect at all, at least in the way attention is generally
used in the fields of sensation, perception and cognition.
                                                        Willie

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